Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Community Technology Preview Microsoft Announces Robotics Studio. Today at RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2006, Microsoft Corp. showcased the community technology preview (CTP) of a Windows®-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotic applications for a wide variety of computing platforms. The community technology preview of the Microsoft Robotics Studio is available for download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics. -Joseph Fernando [Microsoft Robotics Studio Blog] 10:13:17 PM

The Latest News News 2.0. The Washington Post writes: The Net radically shifts principles of news distribution as all sites become equidistant from the reader. ... What's the most amazing thing about the new media world? Its low barriers to entry. Thanks to the Internet, it is cheap and simple to launch a site that, theoretically, the whole world could be watching. Yesterday there were a few dozen providers; today news, views and attitudes stream through millions of gates. And the Web accepts all kinds of gatekeepers, each with unique rules for what matters, rather than the rules adopted by a class of professionals with set journalistic principles. For the old gatekeepers that's a big disruption. [Emergic] 10:05:06 PM

RoboBusiness 2006 Microsoft participates in the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition as a gold sponsor.. Microsoft participates in the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition as a gold sponsor. In addition, Microsoft will deliver a conference session outlining its perspective of the robotics market and will host a technical seminar for hobbyist, commercial and academic robotic developers. The RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition will be held at the Sheraton Station Square in Pittsburgh, PA on June 20-21, 2006. The event website is http://www.robobusiness2006.com. [Microsoft Robotics Studio Blog] 10:00:17 PM

Mobile Payments in Japan Mobile Payments in Japan. BBC News writes: Japan's biggest mobile phone provider is preparing to extend a new service which allows customers to use their handset as a credit card. ... First [Docomo] launched a 'mini' service in April which offered customers as young as 12 years old access to a monthly credit line of around $90 (£50, 10,000 yen). Paying for goods could not be simpler. Users of the service just wave their phone in front of a dedicated reader in the store. They are billed later for the purchase together with their monthly phone charges. [Emergic] 9:54:09 PM

Creative Commons Comes to Microsoft Office Creative Commons comes to Microsoft Office. Software giant builds a tool that allows Office users to choose a Creative Commons copyright license. [CNET News.com] 9:46:30 PM

Really Simple Really Simple Data. John Robb writes: "Dave hits on what could be exciting about Google spreadsheets. The ability to tie in data via XML-RPC. Here's another idea. Another simple format, like RSS is for new post summaries, could also be built for data. That would allow me to pick the data I want from a buffet of data and plug it into a spreadsheet. IT would have to be plug dumb simple. Dave, how about it??? Really simple data??? RSD???" [Emergic] 9:39:03 PM

Microsoft Robotics Studio Microsoft Robotics Studio Provides Common Ground for Robotics Innovation. Community technology preview of Windows-based robotics development platform garners broad industry support. [Microsoft PressPass - Press Releases] 6:52:42 PM

papierdoll.net Fash Rehash: coping with the summer malaise. Summer heat got you dehydrated? Here's a tall drink of fashion blogging H2O... Boredom: not only responsible for the blogosphere, but also some amazing artistic work, as Fashionologie uncovers Mike Figgis' off-the-cuff photography project at Cannes The Sartorialist captures Jacquetta Wheeler on the streets of NYC - I suppose if I were Oscar de la Renta's muse, I [...] [] 7:14:36 AM